Blood token is a new, predefined token, introduced with Innistrad: Crimson Vow. In this article, we’ll talk about everything you need to know about it:
- What is a Blood token?
- How does Blood token work?
- What interactions do Blood tokens enable?
- And more!
What is a Blood Token?
Blood token is a colorless artifact token. It has one ability that lets you pay one mana, tap it, sacrifice it and discard a card in order to draw a card.
So essentially you get a one time effect which lets you pay a mana in order to discard a card and draw a card.
There are various cards that make Blood tokens. There isn’t a specific rule as to how a Blood token can be made. Cards that make them, do so under various conditions. In that way, they are quite similar to Clue, Food, and Treasure tokens.
It’s probably best to look at some examples.
Examples
Here’s Gluttonous Guest, which is as simple as it gets for a Blood token maker:
You play Gluttonous Guest, and when it enters the battlefield, you’ll get a Blood token. Simple.
It also has another ability which gives you 1 life, whenever you sacrifice a Blood token. A nice little bonus. You’ll often see similar bonuses on cards that make Blood tokens.
Here’s another example:
Voldaren Bloodcaster gives you a Blood token whenever it or another one of your creature dies. That’s already a nice effect on a 2/1 flyer for two. There’s a bonus effect here as well.
Whenever you create a Blood token, it checks if you have five or more Blood tokens. If you do, you get to transform Bloodcaster into Bloodbat Summoner. So, while the backside doesn’t make Blood tokens, it can turn the ones you already have lying around into 2/2 flying Bats.
As you can see, there are quite a lot of ways to make and use the Blood tokens.
MTG Blood Token – FAQ
Can you use a Blood token with zero cards in hand?
No, you can’t. Discarding a card is a part of the cost, which means you need to discard a card in order to draw a card.
Can you have multiple Blood tokens in play at once?
Yes, you can. The tokens aren’t legendary, so you can have as many as you want in play.
Why can’t I use the Blood token on Arena?
There might be a bug, but more often than not that’s not the case. Here are just some reasons why you couldn’t be able to use the token:
- You don’t have cards in hand.
- You don’t have one mana available.
- There’s an effect that’s preventing you to do so. Something like the first ability of Karn, the Great Creator, perhaps.
How to destroy Blood tokens?
You can destroy Blood tokens with anything that lets you destroy artifacts. For example, Naturalize can destroy a single Blood token, while Creeping Corrosion get rid of all of them. However, if your opponent has mana available, they can activate their Blood tokens in response to still get their effects.
Additional Questions
If you have a question, that we didn’t answer — leave a comment below. We’ll try to answer it as fast as we can.
Flavor
Blood tokens are closely tied to Innistrad Vampires, so the flavor is pretty straightforward. Vampires like blood, and these tokens represent that.
MTG Blood Token – Interactions
In this section we’ll talk about various interaction with Blood tokens. These are by no means all of them, just some that have caught our eye.
Strefan – Blood Token Commander
Strefan, Maurer Progenitror isn’t just a Vampire tribal commander. He can also be a commander for a dedicated Blood tokens deck.
It makes Blood tokens at the end of turn. You get one for each player who lost life that turn – including you. As you can imagine, it works at its best at a multiplayer game.
Furthermore, you can sacrifice two Blood tokens when it attacks to “cheat” a Vampire into play. Yet another great use for Blood tokens.
Improvise
Since Blood tokens are artifacts, you can use them with various artifact synergies. You could use them with Urza, Lord High Artificer, for example, and turn them into mana producers. That might be a bit of a stretch, since Blood token makers are in Black and Red. However, you could use Inspiring Statuary, and get a similar effect.
Furthermore, you can also use them for affinity for artifacts, enabling metalcraft, and other artifact-based mechanics.
Madness
If we focus on what the Blood token actually does, we quickly notice some synergies with the madness mechanic. If you’d discard a card with madness, you can instead cast it for its madness cost.
So you can use a Blood token to discard a card with madness — then cast it, and still get to draw a card. What’s not to like? One example of a card that you could use is Stensia Masquerade.
It’s a cool card to play in a Vampire tribal deck. When you use the madness cost, you can play it at instant speed as well, which can surprise an unsuspecting opponent.
Conclusion
That’s all about the Blood tokens. Now you probably know how to use them to your full advantage. However, if there’s a question that’s still bothering you, feel free to leave a comment below, and we’ll get back to you as fast as we can.
If you want to find out more about the set that introduced Blood tokens, you can find Crimson Vow spoilers here. Furthermore, if you want to get your hands on some cards, that make these tokens, you can purchase a Set Booster Box on Amazon.
Anyway, that’s it for today — until next time, have fun and create a ton of Blood tokens.
With Strefen, if you sacrifice 2 blood tokens do you still have to discard 2 cards? And would you also be able to draw 2 cards as well?
When you attack with Strefan you can just sacrifice two Blood tokens, and you “cheat” a Vampire into play. You don’t discard two cards, and you don’t draw two cards. Its ability simply gives you a whole different use for Blood tokens, which isn’t connected to tokens’ ability.
Question.
If you have two blood crazed socialite’s on the battle field and it states if you sacrifice 1 blood token does it apply to both creatures, or do you have to sacrifice a token for each?
It doesn’t apply to both creatures, since they each has its own triggered ability that cares only about itself. Whenever a card mentions itself in rules text, it means itself only. (It would be different id it said each card named Crazed Socialite.) So if you want both as a 5/5 attackers, you’d need to sacrifice two Blood tokens.
With Bloodvial Purveyor, when an opponent gets a blood token are they allowed to just sacrifice it as soon as they get it or do they have follow its flavor text to get rid of it? Also with Gluttonous Guest do you have follow the blood token flavor text to get the 1 life or can you just sacrifice the blood token?
You’re probably thinking of the reminder text for a Blood token and not flavor text.
That being said, with Bloodvial Purveyor, opponent can sacrifice the Blood tokens with any sacrifice outlet that let’s them do so. (Let’s say with Arcbound Ravager). If they don’t have an outlet, then they’ll have to pay one and discard a card to get rid on a single Blood token. They can’t just sacrifice them without doing anything.
With Gluttonous Guest you’ll get 1 life whenever you sacrifice a token, no matter what it was sacrificed for.
Can you do it more than once on your turn if you have enough blood tokens .
Yes, you can use multiple Blood tokens in a single turn.
Does Inspiring Statuary let you tap a blood token without paying 1, tap, discard, sacrifice and draw?
Because if you have to pay 1, tap, etc… to get +1 with inspiring statuary, at the end you have no extra mana? It would only let you discard and draw for no mana cost.
Thank you.
Yes, Inspiring Statuary allows you to just tap a Blood token, for reducing the cost of your non-artifact spells. You are using the Statuary’s ability when you do so, and not the one that the Blood tokens have. This means that you don’t have to tap mana, you don’t sacrifice the Blood token, and you don’t draw a card.
Might be late to the party, but if a creature like Anje, Maid of Dishonor uses its ability “pay 2, sacrifice another creature or blood token: each opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.” Do I have to pay the 2 for the creature’s ability and then also pay the blood token’s cost of pay 1, discard and draw?
Better late than never. If you activate Anje’s ability, you’ll pay 2 mana, sacrifice a Blood, and you’ll drain your opponent for 2 life. You don’t have to pay any additional costs to do that.